Energy company Moravské naftové doly (MND) from the KKCG group is expanding its portfolio of photovoltaic power plants. The company has recently completed a large solar power plant in Orlova in the Karviná region with an output of seven megawatts (MW), and will soon commission other larger photovoltaic plants in southern Moravia. The company has also started to offer a new offer to buy electricity from photovoltaics from households. MND Group representatives made the announcement at a press conference today. There are currently over 130,000 photovoltaic power plants in the country with a capacity of 2.97 gigawatts (GW). Many of them have been added in the last two years.
MND plans to gradually expand its investment in renewable energy. The power plant in Orlova will cover up to 40 percent of the group’s annual consumption. The new Mušov power plant in South Moravia, which consists of 5,640 panels on an area of two hectares, is also expected to start supplying electricity during October. The total installed capacity of the plant is 2.65 MW. The company is also preparing its expansion by one MW next year. Another project in the pipeline is Agrovoltaika Poddvorov, where photovoltaics will be supplemented by vines on reclaimed land. The company plans to start electricity production and supply in November.
“Our photovoltaic projects should reach an installed capacity of 11 MW by the end of this year. This means that we will be at 70 percent of our commitment to cover at least the entire electricity consumption of the MND Group from our own renewable sources by 2025,” said Jana Hamršmídová, director of MND’s Energy Division.
The company plans to continue investing in solar panels in the future. In addition, Hamršmídová spoke about the company’s future ambitions to get involved in hydrogen storage.
MND also presented a new service for customers with photovoltaics. The company is now offering households to buy electricity from their photovoltaics with a capacity of up to 50 kW. The so-called Solar Account provides for the purchase of energy for CZK 2,000 per MWh including VAT with an indefinite contract. Clients will pay CZK 60 per month for maintaining the account, but they must have agreed with the distributor on the possibility of overflows to the grid.
The Czech Republic has been experiencing a photovoltaic boom in recent months. In the first half of this year, the energy sector commissioned 45,197 photovoltaic power plants. The number of installed installations is almost a quarter higher than in the whole of last year. The trend is mainly boosted by small power plants for single-family homes, while large installations are also gradually increasing. New large-scale PV projects are also being implemented by other energy companies. For example, CEZ today announced the construction of a rooftop photovoltaic system at the Prague Zentiva factory, which is expected to generate 910 megawatt-hours of electricity annually, equivalent to the consumption of about 260 ordinary households.
MND Group is part of the KKCG investment group of Czech businessman Karel Komarek. The company operates in various areas of the energy sector, from oil and gas extraction to renewable energy production, such as geothermal drilling or wind power. The company also acts as an energy supplier. In addition to the Czech Republic, MND Group also operates in Germany and Ukraine.
